how did egypt come to have an internet and the mobile service worth shutting down? the short answer lies in the most important policy a congressman of the clinton administration that most people, present company excluded, have never heard of. world trade organization agreement on basic telecommunications. back in the 1990s, monopolies operated communications networks in most countries around the world, generally government owned or controlled monopoly. that was the world most of us grew up in. it was before the internet and mobile communications took off, and it's not a coincidence that the end of that world coincided with a takeoff of mobile and internet. in any event, back then in the '90s, leaders at the white house, as stated above, commerce department, and yes the fcc, develop what many thought at the time was a crazy and certainly hopeless idea. what is, they ask and what if we push to privatize communicate should, companies in markets around the world, what if we moved the world toward open market access, robust competition? and it wasn't easy. it took years.